“Knock Yourself Out XD”

Is anything worse than a self-serious pop song about the unbearable reality of endless public adoration? We can all think of a few—ahem, ahem. I wonder which ones Porter Robinson had in mind while writing “Knock Yourself Out XD,” a gloriously tongue-in-cheek sendup of this precise phenomenon with a winking emoticon built into the title. In character as a hopelessly out-of-touch celebrity, Robinson complains about getting stopped in the airport, declares that his face tattoo makes him uniquely special, and deliriously proclaims, “Bitch I’m Taylor Swift!” The irreverent chiptune’d melody and infectious, sugar-rush harmonies call up equal parts Backstreet Boys and George Clanton as Robinson cannily pins the blame back where it belonged in the first place: on uncritical fans with impossible expectations for their all-too-human idols. “Why should you keep letting yourself be let down?” he teases. Being famous does sound awful—so does being humorless about it.